A happily uneventful 8 mile passage on Tuesday from Vinalhaven to Rockland offered plenty of room to anchor in the southern part of the harbor with a good dinghy dock at the Harbormaster’s office. By noon we caught a cab to the clean but crowded Park Street Laundromat to do 9 (!) loads. The water front park is the setting for the annual extravaganza MaineLosterFestival.com. 85,000 people are expected to attend in the next 5 days! Our reward for doing laundry is to always go out for dinner but the Rockland Café’s famous fishcakes were very disappointing – not recommended!
Due to forecasted high winds and thunderstorms, we decided to move on to Boothbay on Wednesday, one day early, missing the Coast Guard Station tours, the Farnsworth Art Museum and the Lobster Fest. Next time! Fog rolled in just past Owl’s Head Light and made for a stressful passage. We took a mooring ball at Brown’s Wharf and forgot our transmission troubles over drinks at McSeaGull’s with IP friends, old and new.
Boothbay Harbor has a Rock Hall style trolley making about seven stops and taking 30 – 40 minutes. Thursday we rode one entire loop to get to know the town. Phone calls to Mack Boring and local mechanic confirmed the recommended service for our transmission is pulling and rebuilding it. (see the transmission post for the gory details) We will try some suggested diagnostics tomorrow. Evening IP fun was enjoyed on the deck at Whale’s Tale and then the weekly brass band concert on the lawn of the charming little library.
After Hayden changed the AFT fluid Friday morning, we ran out the harbor for nearly 2 hours. Upon our return, the fluid was still clear red, not black, so that was good news! We rented a car and drove 10 miles to Edgecomb to the A.G.A. Correa company’s headquarters to replace Radeen’s lost bowline earring. Then we provisioned at Hannaford’s and got caught in a downpour while schlepping everything to the dinghy. The Boothbay Harbor Rendezvous got off to a terrific start with a delicious potluck supper provided by the 30 IP’s attending and Norm Pierce’s narrated slide show of the beauties and wonders of cruising the coast of Maine.
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